1991 Cannondale SM800 'Beast of the East'

drystonepaul

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1991 Cannondale SM800

SM800_01.webp

This is a project I completed for a customer back in June 2021.
The frameset was owned from new and had been resprayed and refurbished at some point prior to it arriving in my workshop.
My job was to source all the parts and build it up back as close to the original spec as possible.

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As you can see, the respray and decals were very good and made for an excellent starting point for a project.
I seem to recall it being in my workshop for at least six months while I tracked all the parts down.

It was mostly specced with Shimano Deore LX M550 with some DX M650.

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I originally went with Deore MT-62 thumbshifters and MT-62 brake levers, having tracked down some very lovely near NOS options.
However, the customer actually preferred the 'push-push' style Deore DX M071 Rapidfire shifters as originally specced, so I ended up sourcing and fitting a pair of those instead.

Unfortunately, I can't find any photos of the finished bike with that spec. It's also a shame I didn't take any more photos of the build process and the final result.

It was however a nice project to work on at the time and great to have a near 'unlimited' budget.
I also had a reasonable time frame to source the parts.
Overall I think it turned out pretty well and my customer loved it.

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